I can drive 85

State transportation officials are testing a new 41-mile segment of an Austin area toll road to see whether it would be safe to post the state’s first 85 mph maximum speed limit.

The Texas Department of Transportation is considering the move on a portion of state Highway 130 that would run north-south between Austin and Seguin, just east of San Antonio, spokesman Mark Cross said Thursday.

Cross said the agency is looking at the road’s topography, checking what speed most drivers are traveling on existing parts of the highway and ensuring the access points and cross-sections would still be safe with an 85 mph speed limit.

If Texas decides to go this route, that segment of road would have one of the highest posted speed limits in the country.

The 85 mph speed limit would be the fastest posted maximum in the Western Hemisphere and the second fastest in the world, according to Rhino Car Hire, a European car rental company. It said a speed of 140 kilometers per hour, or about 86 mph, is posted on some roads in Poland.

Missed it by that much. Show of hands, who thinks someone will introduce a bill to authorize an 87 MPH speed limit just to show those Poles a thing or two?

2 Comments

Note that the German autobahns have *no* statutory speed limit, only an advisory speed of 130 kph (~81 mph). So while you can agitate for an 87 mph speed limit to cheese off the Poles, it won’t make SH 130 the fastest “legal” road in the world…

Of course, as a resident of Austin, I’m all for the trial 85 mph limit.